Times are tough and people want to escape their lives for a while, so a lot of people head to the movies. But for some damn reason they keep going to see shit. Are shit movies more comforting than good cinema? I don’t know. But how else can you explain that “Meet the Spartans,” “10,000 B.C.,” Bangkok Dangerous,” and “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” were all able to become number 1 at the box office last year? There’s a lot of blame to go around and I blame both the public and the reviewers. The reviewers for coming off holier than thou and making people feel that they are a bunch of “pretentious, I’m smarter than you” jerks. The average American can’t stand them and have tuned them out.

But the biggest fault lies with the public. It’s simple, if you don’t go see crap, Hollywood will stop making it. Last year there were 15 sequels that came out from the big studios and at least seven of them were pure money grabs (movies not made to further a storyline, but just to get more money). How are people so blind to this? All they have to do is go RottenTomatoes.com and they can see an overall percentage of reviewers’ thoughts. If a movie has a low percentage, don’t see it. I understand that Hollywood is out to make money, but does that really excuse them for “Harold and Kumar 2,” “The Mummy 3,” or “Saw 5?” Maybe it’s because I hold them to a higher standard and only want good films. Or maybe it’s because it angers me to be behind someone in line when they ask for tickets to “Transporter 3″ when they can go see “Milk.” Have we become a nation that doesn’t want the best and will settle for terrible? I can understand why the rest of the world thinks we’re a bunch ignorant, uncultured jackasses.

“I’m Madea. Ma to the D-E-A.” 

That’s a quote from a film that will win some awards this year, not important awards, just Image Awards. Madea Goes to Jail has been the number 1 movie in America for two weeks now. I think that just goes to prove my point. The Oscars were just on and it would be tough to find someone that doesn’t know “Slumdog Millionaire” won best film. How didn’t it enter people’s minds to go see that instead? So if you take anything from this, it’s stop seeing crap and make Hollywood listen.